PRAISE

“I thank You, Lord, with all my heart; I sing praise to You before the gods. I face Your holy Temple, bow down and praise Your name because of Your constant love and faithfulness, because You have shown that Your name and commands are supreme.” (Psalm 138:1-2)

PRAY WITH CULTURAL INSIGHT

During the month of Ramadan, Muslims fast from food and water from sunrise to sundown. For them it is an obligatory ritual not a willing sacrifice in response to God’s love. Because this fasting is done out of striving in the flesh and not in the power of the Holy Spirit, there are often outbursts of anger, fights in the streets and people being rude and unkind to one another. Isaiah 58 describes the difference between a fast that is acceptable to the Lord and one that is not.

“Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?’ “Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers. Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists. You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high.” Isaiah 58:3-4

Pray for a revelation that this kind of fasting is not acceptable to the Lord. Rather He accepts faith which leads to good deeds coming from a transformed life in the power of the Spirit. Pray that as Muslims fast this Ramadan and they see increased fighting and quarreling, they would realize that “all our righteous acts are like filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6). Pray that they would come to know that only faith in Jesus can give them right standing with God.

PRAY THE BOOK OF ACTS 

“And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord.” (Acts 11:21)

Father, from our human perspective, 36 million is a “great” number. An impossible one, even. But you are a God who draws people to Himself in great numbers as we see in the stories of Act. Do it again, Lord, in Morocco and bring great number of them to belief.

PRAY FOR SATURATION

Just over 36 million is the population of Morocco. That seems like an impossible number as we pray for every corner to be saturated with the Gospel. It’s even a difficult number to get our minds wrapped around. As a visual representation, think of each person in that 36million as a single grain of rice. For 1 million grain of rice you need to imagine 25 kilo (or 55 pound) packets of rice. Then multiply that by 36. That’s 900 kilos (or jut under 2,000 pounds) of rice. These numbers threaten to short circuit our brains, especially when we think of asking the Lord for the opportunity to present Truth to each one.

But then we run into verses like this one whose promise goes far beyond the 36 million of Morocco:

“For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” (Habakkuk 2:14)

Use this promise to encourage your faith today as we pray today for every one of these grains of rice, whom our Lord knows by name to be filled with the knowledge and glory of the Lord!

WORSHIP

God, when we try to wrap our minds around the numbers, it does feel impossible, but we worship You, because we know there is no impossible for You…

“No Impossible with You” by I Am They